Recent Tasting Notes

There is something dark about this chocolate tea. Dark as in brooding and almost erring on the side of emo. If this tea were a music genre, it would be emo. I didn’t smell it in the store, but now that my pouch is isolated at home, I can smell a bit of smokiness in the base, and it’s there in the flavour too, blending in with the subtle chocolate. Not as much creaminess as I would have liked.

Methinks this would blend fabulously with cacao husks. It would give this a chocolate boost whilst the smokiness would ground them husks.

With some 2% milk this time around, the licorice is more noticeable. It may have been because I added a little more leaf this time around too. I need to try to drink up a lot over the next month. Chug, chug, chug!

Awe, this smelled so ultra licoricey in the shop’s sniffing jar. I figured licorice would be an excellent flavour to pair with rooibos, and to even cover up the base for the most part.

But the licorice hides away once steeped. It’s ridiculously subtle. At least the base isn’t overly woody. Better with some light cream. Maybe I’ll try to add a little more leaf or steep longer. Or something?

As an expatriate Dutchie, is this like the traditional salty kind of Dutch licorice? Me, who travels far and wide to seek out Dutch licorice, would probably love this. Yeah I’d say steep it for longer. I once forgot I had brewed licorice tea, came back and the flavour had greatly intensified (=yum).

So cool that you used to live there! I wouldn’t call this a salty licorice. It’s more like a sweeter black one, al,let like wintergreen licorice. I’ve yet to come across a salty licorice tea. That would be really interesting.

Have any favourite brands? I love Harlequins/Harlekijns but they can sometimes be hard to find here.

Oh, when it comes to Dutch licorice anything goes. (we only get the kind that’s direct from Holland anyway, it’s all good :) I grew up with it and the salty kind was always… interesting. You either love it or hate it.

Oh yeah, I sadly sipped this down the other day. Without a doubt, I need more of this in my cupboard. It’s a very forgiving tea, almost never went bitter despite brewing it at various temperature and for various lengths of time.

Tea with vanilla, nuts, and spices which wind up tasting like cola bottle candy will always be welcome in my cupboard.

Ha! Listening to Alanis for the first time since she became huge in the 90s whilst sipping on this cola candy excellence. I was too impatient to wait for the water to cool, however, so it’s a little bitter this time around. My fault. Sencha sure reminds you of the important value of patience.

Oh my, this is wonderful. The dry leaf smells like smooth vanilla spice. Taste-wise, the base is very smooth, no grassiness or bitterness. Just very mellow and allows the other flavours to shine. You know how when you combine some notes, they create an entirely different flavour? It seems like the vanilla and spices are creating a cola scent and flavour. Like cola bottle gummy candy. I’ve noticed this with certain bath products too, like the Body Shop’s gingerbread scrub, whose spices and sweetness morphed into cola. Lush’s Almond buttercream, comprising almond, cinnamon, and vanilla, also smelled like cola. So fascinating.

My mom is also in love with this tea, and agrees on the cola candy similarities.

I sipped this beauty in my new snowflake Nordic mug whilst watching My Neighbour Totoro with my mom, who never saw it until now. What a splendid evening.

I haven’t had a rhubarb tea in a while, and the last couple that I smelled in stores (like at Janet’s Special Teas) underwhelmed me. I want sour tart rhubarb that leaves that weird, almost tingly feeling in the mouth just from smelling it. What is that even called? That’s when I know something, usually fruit, will taste awesome!

This smells heavier on the rhubarb and there’s a touch of creaminess too. Drinking it without any additives, the base is a little too much and takes over the other flavours. Adding light cream improves the balance. The rhubarb pops out again. I’d still like a little more rhubarb, and for the base to be a little on the calmer side. But FWIW, it’s probably the most rhubarby tea I’ve tried to date.

No wait, David’s Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait is quite rhubarby, but I’d never have that hot anyway. So regarding rhubarb black teas, this has the most prominent rhubarb flavour.

Sipdown! I cold brewed the last of it, and noticed that it got slightly bitter, and the liquor was murky, definitely due to the dust at the bottom of the bag. I will without a doubt pick up more next time I venture down to High Street. I’d also like to try more of their sencha blends since they’ve been pretty good, and am kicking myself for not getting the Candy Cane sencha when I was there.

I put this in the fridge to cold brew yesterday afternoon, telling myself to take the bag out before I go to bed so it wouldn’t go bitter, but forgot. Opening the fridge this morning to a jug of very pigmented green cold brew, I cautiously poured some thinking I was about to enter a world of bitterness and astringency. I’m pleasantly surprised that not only is it neither of the two, but I can easily taste the grapefruit, as well. I guess I’ll be cold brewing this one again in the future, after all.

Evening tea extravaganza. This is juicy, tart grapefruit in a mug. Besides its wonderful aroma sucking me in, I bought this to compare to Butiki’s Grapefruit Dragon since I didn’t care for the base and have been on a search for another grapefruit green tea. I think I’ve found it. I normally don’t care for sencha as they can be a little too grassy for my liking, but here, it’s very mild. I don’t detect any grassiness at all. The grapefruit flavour itself is virtually on par with Butiki’s too.

This is a beautiful tea. Speckled with whole star anise, cloves, cinnamon bark, red peppercorns, and green cardamom pods, it smells like a spicy Christmas candy. Is that you too, apple chunks? I just shuffled the leaf around and also found a couple dried orange slices! This is the first tea that caught my attention when I finally, finally walked into Acquired Taste for the first time a few weeks ago. The potency of the tea really knocks your socks off when you lift the lid off the little jar.

I mostly get cinnamon and orange in the tea, which in a way, makes me think of many Christmas blends you see floating around on the market. I’m just really impressed by the freshness of this tea. My mom cracked open one of the cardamom pods to release the delicious seeds inside, so let’s hope I’ll get more cardamom next time. The clove is palpable, but unfortunately, the anise is virtually non-existent. I can’t seem to even find anymore star anise in the dry leaf so I’m wondering if they only bother throwing in one per pouch/tin.

I’m curious to see what this would taste like with light cream and/or eggnog, even. OMG, my mom is playing around with the dry leaf with a spoon and I can smell it from across the table.

oh my dear swedish chef! this is a delight.! so close to grapefruit dragonwell from stacy, but slightly different. Besides the obviously different bases, this one borders on being just a slightly bit sweeter and artificial but not in a bad way. overall, this could be a substitute if i ever get a grapefruit hankering again…now that stacy is poofing on us :(

Another tea from my dearest swedish chef – i was doing well with sipdowns but my yezi tea order just showed up, so back up my count goes lol. This was on my wishlist after a review from missB, so i’m glad to get to try it! this is creamy…the cardamom does come through. now sencha isn’t my most favourite of teas, so it’s a plus that this one is so enjoyable for me. Thanks fjellrev!

This was a tea from my dearest swedish chef aka fjellrev sent me. this is a pretty tasty chocolate tea. I wasn’t expecting it to be quite this tasty. I had a couple cups this morning as a treat – in part for the sipdown factor but also because chocolate, creamy delicious for breakfast? yes please hahaha. I’m not sure if i’d reorder this, not because i didn’t enjoy it, but because i don’t reach for flavoured teas all that often. Still though, there’s a good balance here of chocolate (more milk than dark) and cream. thank you swedish chef!

I stopped in at Acquired Taste Tea Co. today to avoid working on a big presentation I have coming up… and midterm marking.
I was looking for a nice strong and rich black with some malty notes. The woman who helped me pick suggested this one, as she felt it would best fit the description of the tea I was in search for (basically bailin black if I must be honest).

I added about 1.5 tbsp into my tall mug and steeped it for about 10s using 90C water. What came out what a robust, thick and slightly malty cup. I definitely first noticed raisin notes and buckwheat, followed by a malty slightly astringent aftertaste.

As the tea cooled, I noticed the astringency increased, but not to the point where I would not drink it.

Overall, I am very happy I picked some of this tea up. I’m going to play around with the steeping parameters and see if I can increase the sweetness and decrease the astringency. I think a lower temperature water and perhaps less leaf might just do the trick.

Preparation

I have been keeping my caffeine intake to a minimum this week (read: the only caffeine I’m consuming is in decaf teas, so a tiny bit), and I have been tiring of herbals and craving a black tea. Enter this lovely decaf EB. I made it for my travel mug this morning and added milk and sugar right to the mug and it is delicious! This tea truly shines with the addition of milk and sugar. It is a bit watery with the milk, but that is fine by me. The milk also seems to be reducing the tannins, which I am happy about! I will finish this in record time probably, and then move on to my herbal teas throughout the day.

I would love to have one of my chinese teas tonight to celebrate the Year of the Sheep, but I will see how I am feeling about caffeine later. I have felt much better this week with less caffeine, which is not surprising. Caffeine usually amps up my anxiety and makes me sleep even less. Hope to continue my break for at least this week haha. See previous notes on this tea!

I was crazily craving Second Breakfast or Red Tailed Hawk this morning after posting in a thread regarding black tea blends, but in keeping with my lowered caffeine intake (I would say no caffeine but decaf has a tiny bit still) I instead chose this tea this morning. It really is quite tasty for a decaf, it has a nice almost fruity malty flavor, bright and fresh, and the sweetness comes out wonderfully with milk and sugar, which is how I’m having it this morning. Smooth and tasty, perfect for this fine Sunday morning. The clouds are a bit pearly, it’s a bit overcast but clearing, just a relaxing almost misty feeling from the clouds. It feels like a relaxing day, but I know I will be vacuuming later and doing other non-relaxing things. It’s what I do :) see previous notes on this tea!

Mmmm this is totally hitting the spot at work! Smooth, creamy flavor, and I only added a bit of sugar today! I am really liking this tea, it reminds me a bit of fresh bread/scones with butter for breakfast. Malty, bready, a bit creamy..just yum. Happy Monday! See previous notes on this tea :)

I went to my local tea store yesterday to pick up a bunch of teas for my boyfriend, he loves their Tall Mountain Oolong and he tried a second flush darjeeling and quite enjoyed it, so yesterday he stocked up on Tall Mountain and is trying a first flush darj and also picked up some heavenly smelling jasmine pearls. I have yet to try the latter two. I have been curious about breakfast blends, but I usually am terrible with strongly caffeinated teas and milk lol, but I decided to pick up this one to try an EB but without the caffeine! Also picked up some Lord Grey, an amazing cream of EG blend which I will review later.

The dry smell of this is actually a bit fruity lol, whether from contamination or it just is like that, I’m not sure, as it’s my first English Breakfast Blend. I steeped it for roughly 3 minutes, and the liquor is dark and smells like a lovely black tea.

As for the flavor without milk and sugar added, this is a nice and hearty tasting black tea for being decaf! It has some floral characteristics along with some fruit to me, and it tastes full and warming. I will now add a bit of milk and some sugar for the full English Breakfast experience.

Mmm, with the milk and sugar this smooths right out into a lovely full tasting black tea. It’s just so cozy and rich. I am quite enjoying this – a much different flavor than my usual array of Chinese black teas, with all their sweet potato and honey notes. This also has a sweet note, but it’s a more creamy sweet note, and I really like it.

Overall, this is quite delicious. Now that I know English Breakfast (at least in decaf form) isn’t too scary, I might eventually bite the bullet and try a full English breakfast tea. Or a Scottish Breakfast, they said that one is a bit lighter, haha this is out of my usual comfort zone so I will need to read up on these types of tea! Unfortunately my local store sells teas by a minimum of 50g, so it is tough to commit to a blend unless I really love it, as I have found out in the past (I have teas kicking around over a year old due to the large quantity you buy). But so far, I really like this and will enjoy it more as the weather gets cooler :)